SYMONDS YAT

Hi Guys.  Well, this has been a really long and uneventful week.    It wasn't hard and wasn't awful, but it just dragged on!

Elder Dodds and I do lots of finding because our teaching pool is pretty small right now and sometimes it's great but other times it's not so great!  I may have already put this in a past email, but the people here just can't be bothered to answer the door once the sun goes down.  On Saturday we tracked this massive street and we were coming up to the end of it.  At one of the doors this dude was so mad!  "Why are you out here so late at night knocking on my door?!  Get back to your church or wherever you go!"  Well we looked at the time as we walked away and it was 6:30 PM!  I may be in an English speaking country but whoa buddy it is different!

Today we went to a little park in the Forest called Symonds Yat Rock.  It is a cool little viewpoint and was really beautiful.  Sadly though it was a pretty rainy day (surprise!) so the sky was quite gloomy.  There were also a few trails through the Forest so we went on one of them hoping to see some of the wild boar, but sadly no luck.

I hope everyone has a solid week!  Love y'all!

-Elder Lott

View from the top of the hill at Symonds Yat

Another photo from the top of Symonds Yat

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If I don't look happy it's because it was raining on my face

I'M COMING FOR YOU UPS!!!

Hello!  This was an exciting week if there ever was one!

On Tuesday we had a legendary day.  We were tracting and this dude named Andrew let us in and it was super cool!  We taught him the Restoration and he committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  It was a great lesson.  We are going back tomorrow!  That's only like the second or third time that has happened because most people can't be bothered when they see us on the doorstep.

Elder Dodds and I were feeling pretty good,  but of course we can't have that for too long!  We were walking back to the car and the sidewalks are super narrow here and so are the roads so cars are passing you like 1 or 2 feet away and it's proper dodgy.  Anyway, I was walking next to Elder Dodds on the side closest to the road when SMACK!!  I feel something hit my arm and see a UPS truck fly by!  Turns out the numptee hit me with his mirror and it actually hurt quite a bit, to be honest.  He pulled off down the road and started walking toward us so I waved to him and gave him a thumbs up and off he went to deliver his packages.  It was wild.

Aside from that, nothing too crazy  happened that I remember.  We have a new Zone Leader, Elder Willis, and we were on exchanges this week and he's really cool.  Elder Dodds and I went to visit Goodrich Castle today but it was semi-closed so we could only walk around the outside, which was pretty lame, but that's the way it goes, I guess.

Keep being cool and doing cool things!  Love y'all!

-Elder Lott

He got a chance to make his Birthday Cake

we sent him

Soooooo close!

Elder Dodds is awesome!

Good ol' Goodrich Castle

The view from good ol' Goodrich!

Heck yeah!

NEW COMP!!  SAME AREA!!

Woohoo! Another week come and gone here in the EBM!!  As always it was full of thrilling and exciting things and as usual I can't really remember much of what happened so I'll give you what I can!

Let's see.  Transfers were this week.  Here you send off your comp at the train station and wait for your new one.  I waited for 5 hours at the Abergavenny Train Station for my  new comp.  I watched Mormon messages, ate at the cafe and spoke to the cafe owner for awhile but it was a pretty long, boring wait.  They used to have everybody meet at the mission home from what I hear, but sadly not anymore. 

Elder Dodds got here and he is a total legend!  Straight out of Panguich, Utah and he is quite an experienced lad, having 18 months in the mission.  He's through the mid-mission slump thing some people get and is looking to finish on a high note so he's motivated to get stuff done which is great.  He's the second country boy I've gotten in a row!  But yeah he's stud and a good missionary so it's an all around great time.

I've stayed in the Forest and I am so happy about that.  I love it here.  It is beautiful and the people are great!  Especially when they aren't mad at us!

Also, I'm driving which is totally sic man!  The trip from the train station back to the flat was a little more exciting than I would have liked but we are safe and sound.  It took some getting used to being on the opposite side of the road and having the majority of the car being to my left rather than my right and all, but we have persevered and gotten used to it!  The flow of driving here is different and the roads are incredibly narrow, which takes some adjustment, especially when you pass a lorry at 45 mph with like 2 feet between you and him.  There's not much room for error, but I'm getting used to it.  The roads here are quite dodgy sometimes though, so that can be fun.  Also there are loads of roundabouts but I actually quite like them now.  If everybody knows what they're doing they work out great!

Mom, I do remember the viewing for President Hinckley but only very vaguely.  That was quite a long time ago!  The thing I remember the most is that he had a huge ring with a black stone on it.  President Monson will be missed, he was an outstanding Prophet.  President Nelson will be also.  And now I can say I know the Prophet's grandson!  I went to school with him at Butler and Brighton.

Hey, I'm also 19 now!  That's pretty crazy.  Thanks so much to everybody who emailed me and I want y'all to know that I love all of you!  I've come to know some real legends in my life and you guys are all such great people!

I'm so jealous of everyone going to Cancun.  I would love some sunshine but I've turned into a vampire since getting here and would probably melt if I got hit by some direct rays.  haha!  I feel so white and pasty!

I also have a quick spiritual thought!

In D&C 9:8 it says,

8.  But behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you  must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.

If we pray to Heavenly Father he will answer our questions.  He has promised multiple times throughout the scriptures that He will do so and He always keeps His promises!  As missionaries a lot of what we do is challenge people to ask if what we teach them is true and I've seen people receive answers to those questions.  It is an incredible way to feel the love Heavenly Father has for us!  I know that He really does answer our prayers because He has answered mine and I know He will do the same for all of you guys.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Cheers!

-Elder Lott

Facials with Elder Staheli

With his new companion, Elder Dodds

A Birthday cake with a big candle!

A totally awesome Spider-Man bobble head!

GUESS WHO'S DRIVING!!! 🚗🚗🚗

Hello my dudes!  My 2nd transfer ends tomorrow which is pretty crazy!  That means I am being follow up trained this transfer and then after that I'm not a greenie no mo!  The sad thing about this transfer though is that Elder Staheli is leaving the Forest and going to the Newcastle area in Whales.  It's sad to see him go, he has been a good companion.  My new comp's name is Elder Dodds and he is from Panguitch, Utah, but other than that I don't know anything about him so I'll let y'all know next week.  He doesn't have a license he can use though because he has been here for more than a year and hasn't gotten a UK license so guess who is behind the wheel now!  The one and only Elder Lott!  On the other side of the road and everything!

Something else that was cool this week is that Elder Staheli and I left the mission boundaries!  Don't worry though, we had permission.  We had to drive from the Forest to Yate and crossed the Bristol Bridge to get there.  Something I never thought I'd do!  The Bristol Bridge goes over the River Severn, which outlets into the ocean, and it was pretty cool.  

Also I had my first good burger since leaving the States today!  It was a restaurant called The Beefy Boys and they were named the 2nd best burger in the world in 2014 at a competition in Vegas.  It was so good!  I went with my favorite, the bbq bacon cheeseburger.  England is weird though so everybody was eating their burgers and fries with forks and knives.  So, in true American fashion I did what the English would rather me not, and I ate it all with my hands, the way it was meant to be eaten!

I hope everybody has a great week and that the New Year resolutions are going well!  Love you all!  Cheers!

-Elder Lott

At The Beefy Boys with Elder Johnson, my ZL

For you, Mom

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy New Year everybody!  An exciting time to be sure.  I hope you all have some stellar resolutions.  Also, shout out to my fantastic family!  It was great talking to them last week!  Also, guess what!?!?  My sister Marissa got married 2 days ago!  That's awesome!  Congrats Riss!!!!

It's been a solid week as always.  Let's get this started!

On Christmas day as we were leaving the flat to go Skype/have dinner at the Branch President's house we had some excitement!  We left our flat, shut the door, and then exited the building and shut the door and walked down the stairs.  I was on my way to the car when I heard Elder Staheli say, "Elder, I don't have the keys", which, you know is just a small issue because both doors lock as they shut.  So, here we are, wondering what the heck to do!  Can't get into the car or the flat as the keys are on the same ring.  Our flat is on the bottom floor though and some of the windows are street-level so we start checking to see if there are any unlocked windows that are easy to get to.  No luck. Seeing no other option we decided to try one of our other windows that is like 13 feet up the building.  Elder Staheli tries to jump up and grab the grate around the window but can't jump high enough so I boost him up and guess what?  The window is locked!  Just our luck, right?  Well, he decided to stay up there and mess around with the window while I'm looking around in the car park for something we can slide in between the panes to release the lock. I'm tossing up scraps of cardboard, wood, zip ties, you name it!  I even found an aux cord.  This goes on for a solid 35 minutes, we're praying hard, and then I hear something slide!  Elder Staheli popped off part of the lock and boom!  We're in!  A Christmas miracle was truly worked that day!

We taught a man named Jed this week.  He recently  moved in with his mother who has been on and off in her attendance at church but has been a baptized member for around 15 years.  During those 15 years he has come to love going to church.  When we first met him at church he said that being around members of the church makes him happy and that he finds a joy at our church that he hasn't found anywhere else but hasn't become a member because he gets hung up on the feeling that he doesn't have great enough faith.  For our first lesson we really focused on how we feel the Spirit and that the joy he feels at church is the Spirit testifying to him that this is the place he should be.  It was the most Spirit-driven lesson I've been in so far and it was incredible.  I just want to bear my testimony to you all that this church is true and that the happiness it brings is so full and lasting!

It has been a pretty low key week aside from that.  We have been limited in some of our proselyting efforts because of the holidays which has slowed the work slightly but all is well!  Have a super cool week everybody!  I hope the New Year treat you all very well!  Cheers!

-Elder Lott

Professional Burglars! 🕵️‍♂️

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas everybody!  I hope your holiday season (the Yuletide as the Brits say) has been great!  Take some time to reflect on our Savior and the sacrifice He made for us.  Christmas is a time of the year that is special for many reasons, but the most important reason and the cause for all of this is Jesus Christ.

Well, we had an exciting week as always!  One of the highlights was the live nativity!  It turns out they only had 2 wise men so I was promoted from shepherd to King, which was pretty cool.  I also got an upgrade from a baby goat to an alpaca!  It was brilliant!  He looked pretty Rastafarian though.  He had weird alpaca dreads covering his eyes.  Unfortunately I didn't get a really good picture with him but I'll attach what I did get.  The event was pretty big though, we had a little more than 150 people there we think.  Most of them weren't members.  Cool, eh?

On Friday we went to Gloucester to watch the YSA Face-to-Face event from September and that was loads of fun.  We also had a white elephant gift exchange which I totally forgot about so the morning before this happened I was looking around the flat and what did I find?  A textbook that was like 850 pages long detailing the history of Ukraine.  Perfect!  I also put a coloring book with it though so there would be something people actually wanted lol......maybe.  I ended up with a chocolate bar and a sheet of sandpaper.  It was a day of good fun!

Yesterday at church our Branch gave us these massive gift bags with stuff from loads of members.  I am seriously in the best branch!  Our tree is looking a lot more exciting now that we have picked stuff up and the members have given us things.  It's a good Christmas!

Well sorry if I don't get to some emails but we have a pretty busy day and even though it's Christmas it is still also P Day so we can only email today.  Oh well, we always have next week!  I'm so excited to Skype my family!  Talk to you guys soon!

Merry Christmas all!  I hope that everybody has a very special day and that you are able to make some time for the Savior, even if it's just a few minutes.  Love you all!!!

-Elder Lott

My White Elephant Gift

                      

With Elder Bassett, one of my ZLs.  

We found a shop that sells Arizonas!!  It was awesome!  #kiwistrawberry

Me with the tree

The Nativity Squad

Me with my trusty alpaca

A King and some random Shepherd (Elder Staheli)

Yo Yo Yo, it's that time of the week again!  🤙🤙🤙

Well, as far as weeks go this was a pretty basic one.  We have been doing loads of finding because all of our gators got baptized.  #blessed.  That's kind of tough because a lot of English  people are salty deep down....and on the surface as well, now that I think about it.  We were door knocking in this town on Saturday and we could see people in their homes through the windows as we approached the door but they would never come answer.  We knocked probably 30-35 doors but only had like 2 or 3 people answer so we went somewhere else.  haha!

I also went to my first multi-zone conference.  It was party time!  I got to see some of my greenie buddies from the MTC and like half my MTC district, which was great.  There were some real legends there!  As part of the conference though each zone did a skit based on the 12 Days of Christmas.  The Merthyr and Cardiff Zones were okay, but then up came Cheltenham which is, of course, the best zone in the missioon.  For our skit we did the first 12 days of my mission.  The idea was to have the first 11 days be total rubbish and then the 12th day had something good happen which comes from D&C 58:4 which basically says that blessings come after trials.  Sounds good, right?  Well the Zone Leaders called on like Monday (the conference was on Thursday) to see if I would do it and then they wrote up a script and stuff but didn't send it to us so Elder Staheli and I had no idea what was going on until like 10 minutes before we were supposed to do it.  I took a picture of another missionary's screen who had the script and I could barely read one of the pages because it was all blurry.  Anyway, we got up there and totally free styled it but it was the best of the skits, of course.  

Well hey!  That's about it I think.  This week was pretty basic so nothing too exciting.  All the snow has melted so it's not so Christmasy any more and that's too bad, but that's the way England is!  We do have that live nativity on Wednesday so that'll be party time as well.  

Next Monday is Christmas!  Life is exciting!  I also got a sweet Christmas Tree with some sweet ornaments!  Love y'all!  Cheers!

-Elder Lott 

Thanks to everyone who wrote on one of the ornaments on the tree. Love you all!

THERE'S SNOW WAY!!!

Heya!! Oh man, exciting stuff this time around!  Let's get into it!

Well hey, if you couldn't guess by the title, we got snow!!  Woohoooo!  ❄❄❄❄❄  It's pretty cool.    We were talking to people in Monmouth and they said that this is the first time it has snowed in about 4 years!!  I never thought I'd be this excited for snow.  lol.  It snowed a little bit on Friday and then not at all on Saturday but we woke up on Sunday and it was crazy town!  I say crazy town, but keep in mind it doesn't snow here often so when compared to Utah it's nothing.  We had like maybe 2 inches yesterday and that was enough for them to cancel church!  ha ha.  It's been exciting though!

You wanna know what else happened?  Somebody rear ended us!  Don't worry Mom, we are fine, but we weren't expecting that!  The back of the car is a little cracked but other than that nothing seemed wrong.  We later found out that the sensor in the boot was a little off so the car thought it was open and we really had to slam it shut.  So, after a lesson we were putting our stuff away and I shut the boot pretty hard and WAPOW! The license plate went soaring off the car!  Turns out they attach them here with sticky pads, so that's something.  We didn't have anything to attach it back to the car with, so we were going for a solid 6-7 hours with no plate lol.  We had to drive all the way to Hereford to get the stuff we needed, which is the next area over.  We also found out that evening that there was a rubber band in front of the sensor and that's why it wasn't working....

We also got a super dodgy call!  The day after the crash we got a call from the insurance.  I was like yeah, whatever, it's a normal thing to happen after a crash, so I was just chilling there while Elder Staheli was talking to this dude.  Well, he got off the phone and told me it was a weird phone call but it was also his first time with an insurance claim so I just thought it was inexperience.  He then called Elder Veater, our automobile director dude, and was telling him what happened.  Turns out this insurance dude gave Elder Staheli a script for the real insurance call which will be today.  We aren't answering though unless Elder Veater calls and tells us to because it's really weird.  He was telling us to lie about injuries and all sorts of stuff that didn't happen.  Honesty is the way to go though, so of course we aren't saying anything that dude told us to.  It was seriously weird level 9000.

We also put up a Christmas tree which is super cool!  It's super weak though and we didn't have enough lights so the top part of the tree is pretty dark haha.  It's better than nothing though!  Also, our Branch does a live nativity each year and your boy will be a shepherd.  I might even get a sheep (it might be a pygmy goat) to lead in the show which would be pretty big time.

Hey I think that's all!  Keep being your awesome selves and do something good for another person this Christmas season!    #LightTheWorld am I right?  Love y'all!  Cheers!

-Elder Lott

Our Christmas Tree!

After the Snow......

This is super late, but this is the first door I knocked

as a Missionary! (nobody was home lol)

BAPTISM #2 AYO!!!

Well here we are again!  Exciting stuff my dudes!  An exciting week it has been for sure!  We were able to get through all of the discussions with Crystal so she got baptized on Friday!  Elder Staheli baptized her and I was able to confirm her yesterday in Sacrament Meeting.  It has been incredible seeing her change over the last month and a half.  I wasn't able to see that very much with Ben and Kerry because I got here right before they were baptized, but seeing it with Crystal has been so cool.  The Gospel has made her so much happier!

Richard Hammond lives in our area I guess.  I don't know who that is really, but apparently he's a big deal and Elder Staheli was flipping out about it.  He said that he's the guy from the show Top Gear, but I've never really watched it.  We were at a DA (Dinner Appointment) and this family told us where he lives so we dropped by.  Turns out he lives in a full on flipping castle with a gate and stuff.  So we buzzed in and that didn't work, but there was a number to call on the gate so we called that and his butler answered!  Turns out Hammond is in Switzerland filming a show but he said we can come back in a few weeks when he gets back.  Elder Staheli was feeling pretty good about himself and was telling members about it and one of them told us that he got in a crash and rolled his car and is now in a hospital in Switzerland!  I still don't know who this dude is so I don't really care, but Elder Staheli is acting like he just met the Prophet or something.

Well, I don't think much else happened this week.  Do something cool this week.  Help somebody out!  Do something good! Love you all and hope that everything is great!  Sorry I don't have more pictures Mom!

-Zach

Crystal's Baptism

FIRST TRANSFER DOWN!

Hello! Hello!

An exciting week this was!  It was a lot of missionary stuff that wasn't too interesting, but I'll tell you the fun stuff!

We had a District Thanksgiving which was pretty fun!  Our Thanksgiving we had planned with the Branch President fell though, which was pretty lame, but oh well.  We had a chicken instead of a turkey, and some banana pie because you can't buy that pumpkin stuff here.  It was pretty much a discount Thanksgiving but it was still fun.  We also had a funeral for one of our Zone Leaders because he is dying (going home) at the end of this transfer.  It was a weird thing to witness.

We have a baptism scheduled for Friday but we may have to move it back because Crystal has flaked on our last 2 lessons and we might not have time to teach her everything.  Let's pray it works out!

We met a super solid dude named Phil while tracting this week.  He was actually interested, which like never happens, and we are meeting with him tomorrow so I'll update y'all next week.  Shout out to my dad who is also Phil...Happy Birthday!  And we're baptizing this one for you Dad!

So we were driving and Elder Staheli saw a dead deer on the side of the road and wanted to check it out to see if it had antlers or not so we went to go see.  Well, we got there and somebody had the same idea!  The deer had no head!  It was kinda nasty.

We went to Hereford Cathedral today and it was pretty cool.  It's really big.  They have some books there that are so valuable and old they're chained to the wall and that's pretty hardcore if you ask me.  They had a bunch of king graves and stained glass windows too.

I hope you all have an incredible week!  Go do something cool!

Love,  Elder Lott

Our District Thanksgiving

Elder Lewis, the Zone Leader, being sent off

We did a District Activity in Gloucester's Town Center

asking people what they were grateful for

Hereford Cathedral

This week Zach met Lucy Hobbs, who was a companion to his sister Sarah when she served her Mission in New Zealand!

FIRST BAPTISMS!!!

Hello all!

The beginning of the week was pretty basic, but once Friday hit it was crazy!  We had a meeting in Birmingham for all the greenies because we are almost half way through training - WOO!  It was fun to see some of my friends from the MTC again!  That evening was Ben and Kerry's baptism!!  We were late because we had to come back from Birmingham and we came back to mayhem! They couldn't figure out how to turn on the warm water for the font so the water was freezing cold.  I thought it would be fine until  I remembered that Kerry is 8 months pregnant and that could have resulted in an early baby!  They figured it out about 10 minutes before the baptism started, but by then the font was practically full.  They emptied it, and it takes about an hour to fill so we had to drag the program out for as long as we could.  It all ended well though, so all is good.  Ben and Kerry are so awesome!  They were confirmed yesterday in Sacrament Meeting, and that was an incredible experience.  The Spirit was so strong.

Today we went to a little model village in Gloucestershire!  It was a 1/9 scale model of the village Burton-on-Water and it was pretty cool!  It even had people in some of the buildings and there was a choir singing in the church.  Cool stuff!

Hope everybody has a brilliant week!  Go do something good for another person!  Love y'all!

-Elder Lott

Ben and Kerry at their Baptism 

with their daughter Eden

                                                       Burton-on-Water                                                           

THE BOOK OF MORMON CHALLENGE

One of my favorite scriptures is Alma 26:16, and it says,

"Therefore, let us glory in the Lord, yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever.  Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?  Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his power, and of his long suffering toward the children of men?  Behold, I say until you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel."

This is one of my favorite verses because of the thanks it gives to God.  He has done so much for us, his love is so immense, and he will always be there for us no matter what.  Just like it says in that verse,  I really "cannot say the smallest part which I feel", because when I think about everything that I have been given and the love that he has for me I am filled with joy so great that words aren't good enough to describe it!  I know God lives and that he cares about each and every one of us!